When you say supplementation you mean supplements(pills) right, if so, what do you recommend?

Not necessarily pills, but more about glutamine and aminoacids. For the OP, I think he can skip it. At his age, he is still a bull full of testosterone (sounds ghay I know, but it's true.) For those of us in their 30's however, I think we need that kind of supplementation.

I won't derail the thread much further :) Goju actually started a nice thread discussing that here, and I blogged a bit about the aminoacids and glutamine I've been taking and the desired results here if anyone would like to read and comment: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...A7BBE332071538

Originally Posted by PirateJon

Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. Probably that's not right. Read my link again. For a bare minimum you should know how many calories and how much protein you eat. A food journal is just as important as a workout journal.

1 - You don't really need to cook. heating beans, nuking veggies, putting protien powder in oatmeal. This ain't iron chef.
2 - If this is important to you, make time. Seriously. I'm in the same boat and it sucks but that what we gotta do.
3 - eating clean CAN be cheap as hell. Oatmeal? cheap. canned beans are just as good as steak (for you, not taste wise) and like 2/$1. A gallon of milk is like $4. eggs are $2 a dozen. Frozen spinach and broccoli are $1 a box.

You can get a pair of 55lb dumbells for like $35 on sale. not as good as a 330lb olympic set and a bench but beats nothing. With those you can do squats, good mornings, presses, whatev. Building muscle is killer for losing weight. Also you should jog or otherwise do cardio in the AM pre-breakfast.

good luck dude.

Again, PJ beats me to it.

Lucid, you don't need to be a chef to eat well. As he said, oatmeal, frozen veggies, eggs, milk, tofu, yogurt, canned beans (and chicken if you can afford it). They all can give you something to start with.

Now, let's assume you really are in no position to buy that and cook (maybe you spend the whole day at school and have nowhere to keep your food... it can happen.)

Even when eating junk food, you can still manage around it. A mcdonalds combo can serve you as 2 to 2.5 meals. Buy 2 to 3 bottles of water, and empty them. Then every morning fill them up with a mix of water, a tiny bit of salt and orange juice (not from concentrate). Take them with you and drink them between meals to "fill you up". Here and there toss a green apple, yogurt or granola bars. It's all about playing with you food.

You have a large frame so you can afford to cut some calories. Even with the worst of junk food, you can manage to break it into smaller meals (better than nothing.) Control of the size of your rations is fundamental.

Start by dropping to 2000 cals a day. If you get to feel too dizzy or weak, then increase your caloric intake until you feel well, and then reduce it a bit... repeat as necessary.

Also, ditch the weight-loss supplement. You are 21 and in your prime. You don't need that. Try losing weight naturally, and use that supplement if all else fails (of you lose weight and then want to get ripped and cut and ****.)

PJ's suggestion on the pair of 55lbs dumbell is right on. You can do squats, overhead presses, lunges, bicep curls. Throw a mini-towel around the handle, grab the towel and do tricep kickbacks with it. That's a mean way to work your triceps and forearms.

I would still experiment with the pushups, though. Do them until failure, several sets of them, morning and night in addition to anything else you are doing. You'll be surprised.

The street argument is retarded. BJJ is so much overkill for the street that its ridiculous. Unless you're the idiot that picks a fight with the high school wrestling team, barring knife or gun play, the opponent shouldn't make it past double leg + ground and pound - Osiris

There are many mma fighters who do not use weights and stick with bodyweight exercises such as pushups/pullups/dips/handstands/etc... It builds dense, lean muscle mass but you will not add as much bulk as you will with heavy weight lifting. I like to include lots of bodyweights and olympic lifts into my lifting program for different reasons, but just experiment and see what works for you p.s. if you have any doubts of the power that bodyweight exercise can have on your physique, look at olympic gymnasts. i mean holyshit are those guys ripped

Pavel's book the naked warrior has a fairly long section on one armed pushups.

As I recall, Mike Tyson came out of prision quite large due to a routine mostly of pushups and other bodyweight exercises, though it has been quite some time since that occured.

Pushups can certainly build bodymass, supposedly during bootcamp the average marine's biceps grow considerably, though I would have to find a link for info on that.

Actually now that you mentioned about the marines, my father used to swear for push ups. He was in the army back in my country, and in his youth had these huge arms and pretty decent pecs. He said he was skinny as ****, but that 5 years in the academy with pushups day and night gave him that. Even in his 60's he is relatively huge. So there must be some truth behind that.

The street argument is retarded. BJJ is so much overkill for the street that its ridiculous. Unless you're the idiot that picks a fight with the high school wrestling team, barring knife or gun play, the opponent shouldn't make it past double leg + ground and pound - Osiris

Well I was in the Army, so I used to be in better shape. However like I said before Im coming off a knee injury so I haven't done anything really physically intense in about 2 years.

Well ot my credit Macho, I don't eat Fastfood nor do I drink soda regularly, haven't in a long time.. I mean occasionally if like I have to I will, but not very often maybe every few months. And I buy 24 packs of bottled water and go through them like crazy too. So my water intake is good. Also I have been around 2000 calories for awhile. My vice is the occasional ice cream or starbucks frappachino(400 calories!) I drink alot of smoothies too because I justify it as at leasts its got fruit in it, plus I usually throw in some kind of protein supplement, or something.

I HATE most vegetables, when I was younger I was abused at a daycare about eating vegetables, so i can't eat most of them. Potatoes, Carrots, and lettuce are about all.

So when you guys say lean protein? Does lean mean the same as lowfat? Like if I got some lowfat deli meat, Or like Lean beef for hamburgers could that be the same thing?

Actually I meant to ask my MT teacher that today but forgot. In the beginning I had asked him about maybe joining a boxing gym that was closers so on my off days I could do some bagwork and maybe some weights or aerobics, and he said that it probably wasn't a good idea at first, because I would probably burn myself out. However 2 days a week isn't really enough for me. So i joined a Kyokushin karate class on wed/fri. I'm way to lazy and unmotivated to workout by myself consistently, but having a class really helps. Anyways back to my question. DO you think doing some running in the morning would help? Or do you think thats too much on my system?

Well I was in the Army, so I used to be in better shape. However like I said before Im coming off a knee injury so I haven't done anything really physically intense in about 2 years.

Well ot my credit Macho, I don't eat Fastfood nor do I drink soda regularly, haven't in a long time.. I mean occasionally if like I have to I will, but not very often maybe every few months. And I buy 24 packs of bottled water and go through them like crazy too. So my water intake is good. Also I have been around 2000 calories for awhile. My vice is the occasional ice cream or starbucks frappachino(400 calories!) I drink alot of smoothies too because I justify it as at leasts its got fruit in it, plus I usually throw in some kind of protein supplement, or something.

I HATE most vegetables, when I was younger I was abused at a daycare about eating vegetables, so i can't eat most of them. Potatoes, Carrots, and lettuce are about all.

So when you guys say lean protein? Does lean mean the same as lowfat? Like if I got some lowfat deli meat, Or like Lean beef for hamburgers could that be the same thing?

I actually don't buy into this lean protein **** to be honest. :icon_scra There is no clear definition of what lean protein means, really. It could be whey protein, it could be egg whites, it could be fish. But you know, to feed muscle, you need it all, protein, carbs and fat.

I'd be suspicions of the lowfat deli meat. If it's coming prepackaged, probably it has tons of sodium, which is not ideal. Not terrible if you work out, but not really that good, and usually it's not a good source of protein. I'd go for the chunky, juicy beef for bbq or hamburguers (not the frozen variaty, but the fresh one).

Frozen chicken cutlets are good. Also, frozen tilapia fish is a good source of good fat and protein. And it's cheap compared to tuna or salmon.

Fat from meat is good. From fish, it's even better. And fat from beef, chicken or pork is good for building muscle and kick in testosterone production. Fish fat is even better to keep the bad cholesterol down.

It's the trans-fats, the super-duper processed fats (from cheetos and deep fried fries for example), the sodium, the kazillion grams of sugars, and the complex crappy carbs in preprocessed food that can kill your diet.

I eat 3 to 4 eggs everyday, minimum... and fried with olive oil. The beef I buy? I look for the one that has the little chunky white stuff in it, the fat. Yummm, yummm. When I do my wraps of chunky fat meat, I pour a bit of flax oil in it to top it off. Good fat gets you going if you make sure you work out hard and you stay away from the sodium, the trans fats, the refined sugars and the complex carbs.

Don't worry about the so-called lean protein IMO. Just buy your meat, fish or chicken, fresh the better, canned if nothing else, and fry it or bake it with a bit of olive oil.

If I were you, I'd follow some rules that more or less resemble the following below. If you do, and if you work your ass off (which I think you are), you'll do fine:

Calculate how much you eat a day, and break all that into 6 to 8 portions. That is, you will aim to eat small portions 6 to 8 times a day. That will help your metabolism burn body fat.

Make sure you get enough fiber, at least 25g a day - oatmeal or granola bars will help here, as well as potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat or rye bread/pita bread/bagels, yucca, garbanzo beans (love'm always), and buckwheat.

Make sure you get at least 100g of protein daily (for your size, you may need more, but that should be your baseline.)

Make love to peanut butter, specially the one that comes with that little lake of peanut butter oil on top. That's good fat, plus that **** brings lots of good calories and protein per ration (a decent ration is about the size of a golf ball.) Stay away from any peanut butter **** that comes mixed with fruit jelly or any other sugary **** (except those organic brands already mixed with honey; those are good.)

Check that the food you have is not fucked-choked in sodium (stay away from any food that has over 20% DV of sodium per ration.)

Check that it's not choked in sugars (nothing containing more than 40g of sugar per ration).

Stay away from american or cheddar cheese (kraft anyone). That **** is more oil than milk. Opt for feta cheese (which is more expensive) or at least gouda, mozarella or the latin varieties. They have a lot of fat, but it's good fat, plus they have more animal protein (specially feta cheese.)

I can't think of anything else, but I think those are good rules of thumb to follow.

The street argument is retarded. BJJ is so much overkill for the street that its ridiculous. Unless you're the idiot that picks a fight with the high school wrestling team, barring knife or gun play, the opponent shouldn't make it past double leg + ground and pound - Osiris

Well thats good news, I've been kinda doing some of that stuff already. I personally hate counting calories, and carbs and all that crap. Plus I enjoy eating :). I'll take something thats a little less healthy as long as it tastes good. I bought some hamburger meat and some chicken.. I cook alot on the Foreman. Its fast, it tastes good, and its supposedly less fat, because the grease burn off. I bought tons of peanutbutter stuff. I dont really eat white bread anyway as a personal preference. Plus i usually get alot of healthy snack stuff so I can munch on a granola bar or an apple, etc throughout the day.

I read that push ups are at least good for your ab stabilisers. So for punching, it teaches the abs to stay firm while you endurance train your punching muscles. Try the "whell barrow" with a partner (they hold your legs at their hips). Your abs and obliques will burn as much as your arms.